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‘Futile effort’: Homeless advocates decry proposed Miami Beach camping ban

Ordinance passes first hurdle

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Miami Beach city leaders are considering a no-camping ordinance, a proposal which says if someone who is homeless does not accept shelter, police can arrest them.

Commissioners met to discuss the ordinance Wednesday and later voted to advance it on a 4-3 vote.

There are no homeless shelters in Miami Beach. One commissioner says they would be willing to bus a homeless person out of town to a shelter.

“The services are there but not always being used, (they’re) being declined,” Commissioner Alex Fernandez said. “If you don’t accept these services we are going to have to arrest you.”

A representative from Miami shelter Camillus House later confirmed Miami Beach has an agreement with it for 12 shelter beds.

Co-sponsors say the ordinance is modeled after one passed in Orlando that a federal appeals court upheld in 2000, finding that the city is “constitutionally allowed to regulate where ‘camping’ occurs…a disparate effect on the homeless does not violate equal protection…nor is sleeping out-of-doors a fundamental right.”

Read the proposed ordinance:

“That case examined Section 43.52 of the City Code of Orlando which prohibits camping and provides for certain exceptions,” explained legal analyst David Weinstein, “They found that statute was constitutional.”

Homeless advocates said they find the idea to be cruel and unproductive.

“The proposed ordinance would seek to arrest or deport the homeless out of Miami Beach,” David Peery, the executive director of the Miami Coalition to Advance Racial Equity told Local 10 News in a statement. “This is a futile effort because the homeless will simply return to Miami Beach after release from jail or discharge from a shelter. Indeed, no city has ever arrested its way out of homelessness, and Miami Beach will not be the first. Homelessness is a housing and social services matter, not a criminal justice issue.”

He added that arresting the homeless “would divert police resources away from solving real crime to inappropriately trying to use police to address a housing and social services matter.” and said “saddling unhoused people with criminal records makes it harder for them to escape the cycle of homelessness.”

“Instead, Miami Beach Commissioners should support the 1% tax referendum that will create housing and constructively end homelessness,” Peery said. “It is far cheaper to provide permanent supportive housing that would end homelessness than it is to arrest and incarcerate poor people.”

Ron Book, head of the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust called the proposal “probably not a productive way to resolve homelessness in the community” in a statement to Local 10 News.

Commissioner Ricky Arriola agreed with the critics.

“I think we are creating a new criminal category for something that is not a crime , being homeless is not a crime,” Arriola said. “Those who are suffering from mental health or addictions putting them in jail makes it worse for them. Instead we should get voters to pass the one penny tax.”

Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez disagrees with the proposal’s detractors, saying “we need to do something to protect our residents.”

“It is not designed to be inhumane,” Rosen Gonzalez said.

Pinecrest officials passed a similar ordinance this summer.

It says if a person “refuses to be taken to a shelter, the violation shall constitute a public nuisance, and may subject the violator to arrest and shall, upon conviction, be punishable either by a fine up to $500.00, imprisonment in the county jail up to 60 days, or both.”

Pinecrest ordinance:

After passing its first reading Wednesday, the next hearing on the Miami Beach ordinance is set to take place on Oct. 18.


About the Author
Christina Vazquez headshot

Christina returned to Local 10 in 2019 as a reporter after covering Hurricane Dorian for the station. She is an Edward R. Murrow Award-winning journalist and previously earned an Emmy Award while at WPLG for her investigative consumer protection segment "Call Christina."

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